Stalker
The Stalker is a Dark Templar cybernetic war machine unit in StarCraft II. Overview The Dark Templar are masters of stealth and guile, though the fall of Aiur to the Zerg demonstrated that guile alone cannot defeat a foe as relentless as the Swarm. Inspired by the ancient and honored Dragoon walkers the Dark Templar have begun to build war machines of their own. The Stalker is a machine controlled by the shadow-essence of a Dark Templar warrior fused into a metal body.Blizzard Entertainment (2007-05-19). Stalker. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2007-09-06. Swift and deadly, Stalkers have been credited with many fantastic powers in recent conflicts. Nevertheless the only one that has been witnessed consistently is the ability to instantly teleport or 'blink' from one spot to another. This ability enables stalkers to strike from unexpected quarters, catch a fleeing foe, or escape an unfavorable encounter. In addition, the deadly particle disruptors mounted on the Stalker's carapace are adept at crippling both ground and air targets. Ambushes by groups of Stalkers have brought fiery doom upon many attack wings that thought themselves safe from retribution. Game Unit In-game, Stalkers function like fragile, but more agile Dragoons. They serve as excellent economy raiders.Zetaras Xal'Kurat. 2008-03-16. StarCraft 2 Korean and Chinese Build Summary. SC2 Blog. Accessed 2008-03-18. Abilities Upgrades Strategies Stalkers can "dance" like a Dragoon,Karune. 2008-07-16. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 41. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-07-16. moving injured Stalkers away from opponents when they are being attacked by melee attackers or targeted by focus fire. Blinking can also be used as an alternative form of dancing. Stalkers gained a reputation for being overpowered at BlizzCon 2008 due to a widely viewed match. Karune responded that stalkers are weak vs zerglings even with Blink micro, but are strong against armored units such as roaches. Stalkers do well against units with low damage per second (such as roaches) but weakly against more offensive units (such as zerglings).Stalkers still fall to large groups of Zerglings in terms of cost, even with Blink micro. Although, with the additional micro, especially while also using terrain to your advantage, a Protoss player will definitely be able to at least fight a group of Zerglings, rather than being forced to retreat. In the Sonkie/Yellow game 1, the Blinking micro definitely kept his Stalkers alive longer, though force firing would have ended that battle in the Protoss favor as well, since the Stalker has bonus damage towards armored units like the Roach. Zerglings are still definitely the best counter against Stalkers from the Zerg side, especially since the improved pathing system allows them to get to their ordered locations faster and are able to surround more efficiently. The cooldown for Blink is perfect in saving Stalkers from death against Roaches which have a much lower rate of dps than Zerglings. Against Zerglings, the cooldown is not fast enough, similar to the announcement video of the Protoss race when the Stalkers were first introduced. Karune. 2008-10-14. Re: Stalkers seem imba (page 3). Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-10-14. Quotes :Main article: StarCraft Quotations Images image:Stalker SC2 Rend1.png|Previous render References